Trump just hijacked a police memorial service to deliver a bizarre rant about genetics

President Trump appeared at the 37th annual National Peace Officers’ Memorial Service near Washington D.C. today, ostensibly to honor the service of law enforcement officers who perished in the line of duty, reports CNBC. 

The Republican president is fond of yammering on about his love and appreciation for the police, a lie that is revealed by his habit of engaging in rank criminality and his constant attacks on the FBI investigating his campaign team for possible Russian collusion. This is a man who doesn’t respect the rule of law, but who knows that backing the blue plays well with his base.

Trump’s remarks today came across as deeply cynical and blatantly opportunistic. He opened his speech by “thanking” deceased law enforcement officers and gesturing at the heavens insincerely. It was a weird thing to do, and came across as purely performative, with no genuine emotion underlining it.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Trump speech if he didn’t try to sell his wasteful, pointless, and racist Mexican border wall at some point, demonstrating once again that there is no event so solemn that he won’t exploit it for his own political purposes. He also got in some of his favorite talking points about sanctuary cities, because xenophobia is the acrid salt that he uses to flavor all of his rhetoric.

One of the strangest parts of the speech by came when Trump addressed the family of a fallen officer standing behind him. He commended them on their “good genes” several times without any real explanation. The family was forced to just nod awkwardly, clearly confused by his remarks.

The comments are the latest in a long line of the same and constitute part of his odd obsession with genetics that at times borders on flirtation with eugenics/ubermensch territory. Trump likes to think he’s superior, intellectually and physically, to those around him, and so he chalks up his imagined outstanding qualities on his DNA. It’s a worldview he applies to those he respects or at least pretends to respect. It just gets creepier every time he does it.

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Natalie Dickinson

Natalie is a staff writer for the Washington Press. She graduated from Oberlin College in 2010 and has been freelance blogging and writing for progressive outlets ever since.